Espionage
by Porsheee
Summary: Cinder and Kai are spies. Their task? Install a new listening device. But when Cinder changes plan partway through, her encounter with Luna's queen not only puts her in danger if losing her life, but of learning the truth of her mysterious past.
1. Espionage

Cinder's earpiece screamed at her, and she silenced it with an irritated sigh. Kai would _kill_ her for it as soon as she got back—because, yes, she _was_ coming back—but the impossible task ahead would only get worse if she had to deal with his panicked yelling.

Dangerous. Right. As if every day of her life wasn't dangerous. As if she didn't know what she was getting into all those years ago when she joined REV. As if she didn't know what she was getting into when she was assigned to this mission.

She sat up, smoothing out the bunches in her full skirt. Brown hair tickled her neck where it had already escaped from the tight, twisted bun. Ignoring her own discomfort, she made her way down the hallway, graceful in the way she had been trained to be, glad that the long silk gloves and dress covered the metal eccentricities she'd spent her entire life hiding. Now, in Artemisia, where cyborg bias was worse than anywhere else in the world, it could mean her life if they were seen.

But Cinder knew this. Cinder didn't care. Because she was Cinder. And she was here for more reasons than attending a simple dance.

She was here to spy.

It took 2.37 seconds for her to spot Luna's queen. Instead of dancing, Levana stood at the edge of the swirling ball gowns and trapezing music, a shimmering glass of blood red wine in her hand that never reached her lips. A man stood in front of her, speaking, while she smiled coyly and nodded, occasionally interrupting him.

From here, all Cinder could see of him was his guard uniform and blonde ponytail, but when he turned to leave, her eyes met his blue-grey ones.

What was Jacin Clay doing here? Cinder could've sworn he was on a different mission, supposed to stay away from the ball, keeping an eye on Levana's room.

What did this mean?

Ducking behind a pillar before he could spot her, she breathed deeply and counted to thirty before sliding out from behind the pillar and taking another calculating look around. Jacin was gone, the Lunar queen was dancing, and—

"May I ask for a dance?"

Cinder turned her head, startled, to see handsome, sharp features and a familiar smile.

She flew behind the pillar again, dragging him by tie to the spot next to her.

"Cinder—"

"What the _spades_ do you think you're doing here?"

"You turned me off and—"

"Don't you think I had a reason to? Kai, I can do this myself. You're making it worse by being here. You'll just get me caught, and then where we be?"

Kai made choking noises, and she realized she was still gripping his tie. She released him, but her glare and folded arms made it obvious she would not forgive him. Not today.

He tried a grin, rubbing his neck where the tie cut into his neck.

"I'm not used to seeing you in something so... stiff."

"Oh, so sorry, prince. Would you prefer if I smothered myself in grease?"

Kai's smile melted, and he shifted closer.

"I think she saw me."

"Go. Leave. Talk to her, dance, whatever, but she can't see us together _._ "

Kai reluctantly walked away, before smiling and catching the eye of one of the dancers. He disappeared like that, into the seething mass of people and colors and gems and luxury she never quite got used to.

Absentmindedly fixing her hair and adjusting her dress, she closed her eyes and breathed until she calmed down.

With Kai here, now it was even more dangerous.

 _Sneak into Levana's room. Instal the new listening device. Get out, meet up with Kai at the gates._

It had been so simple. And it was all her fault she was here, that she didn't follow the instructions and, instead of leaving, decided she'd go after the queen herself.

No wonder Kai had followed her. For all she knew, this was suicide.

Practicing a smile, she turned her earpiece back on and stepped out into the light. The people cut through its yellow glow, profiles cast in a stunning golden dust. She found herself looking for Kai, picking him out of the crowd, finding him dancing with an girl in a blue dress.

Cinder caught her breath. She'd never seen someone so beautiful before. _The princess._

The song ended, and Kai and Winter separated, Winter swept into the arms of—

Oh. _That_ was why Jacin was still here.

Jacin and Winter danced, making their way closer and closer to Cinder. What a typical Jacin thing to do, trying to pull Winter from the mess that was about to start. Not that she could blame him; Cinder would do the same if Kai wasn't as much a spy as her, and she had any right to protect him.

They burst from the edge of the throng of dancers, passing her, both of them smiling. If she didn't know better, she would've thought they were simply leaving for fresh air. Not to escape. Not to run.

Not to do what she refused to do, what she should do, what made her such a fool. A brave, stupid fool.

Then a soft breeze fluttered against her neck, fingers closing over the pressure point where it met with her shoulder.

"I wasn't aware that you would be joining us tonight." Warm breath, soft voice. Cinder had never been so terrified in her life.

She stayed stalk still, biting the pain back with even, controlled breathing. Levana removed herself from Cinder, a smile on her lips as if between old friends.

"How did you—"

"You look so much like my dear sister did," Levana said, "before she died."

The last word should've been swallowed by the piercing music, the sound of feet on floor, and the rustling conversations that softened the rest of the sentence. Instead, it ricocheted through Cinder's mind, and whether it was Levana's intention or not, it ran in lines of text across her vision, over and over, like a chant. Like a prophesy.

Like fate.

 _Died. Died. Died._ Death.

"So, tell me, my precious little niece, how did you survive the fire?"

 _Niece?_ Cinder gulped.

"Wha—"

Levana chuckled. "Do you not know? No one told you? Oh, this is too good."

Levana leaned in, pulling a long, red nail along Cinder's face. Warm blood trickled down her cheek, but she didn't flinch. She didn't so much as blink.

"I'm your aunt, Selene," she whispered in Cinder's ear. "And I'm going to kill you."


	2. Sleepover

Cinder's muscles ached from the beating around Levana's royal guards gave her on the way to her cell. Her dress now limped around her shivering frame, dirty and ripped and far from the lovely cream it started as. She'd never been one for dresses, but there seemed something so broken about it, as if she were looking at herself and not a just strangled piece of fabric.

Cinder sighed and held a hand up to her forehead. She was surely going insane if she was comparing herself to a _dress._ She wouldn't blame herself if she was going insane, though, what with all of the day's events.

Changing the mission. Getting caught. Her heritage revealed. Getting thrown in a cell.

Next thing she knew someone would be writing a novel. _How to Fail as a Spy: Unlock the fool within you!_

Her laugh cut through to the steel bones of the room, stopping short halfway through.

Okay, definitely insane.

Resting her head against the cool, hard floor of her cell, she closed her eyes, letting the obsidian behind her eyelids replace the darkness of her confinement. If she were lucky, she could sleep through this entire thing, until the queen finally came to chop her head off or however she was planned to be killed.

She hoped it would be quick. Her eyes closed.

She jerked awake at the sound of metal dragging against stone, and the labored breathing of three or four sets of lungs.

The tall, crumbled form of a man, and the three royal guards leading him, stepped from the hallway, the guards shoving the prisoner forward.

 _Kai._

"Look, I'll be nice." The guard speaking sneered, taking out his keys. "I'll put you next to this filth. Let the dirt mingle, eh?" He pulled out his keys, unlocking the cell next to Cinder. The guard then pushed Kai hard enough that he slammed against the prison wall. Cinder would've cried out, but not a sound could escape her throat.

Then they left as they came, swearing and grumbling and generally being very not-royal. They must be the ones hidden from public eyes, the ones stronger and meaner and tougher than the normal guards. The normal guards like Jacin. Normal, if he weren't a spy.

Cinder crawled over to the bars separating Kai's cell from her own, clearing her throat. The pain in her ribs bit into her every time she moved, and even breathing too deeply hurt. She didn't want to think about speaking.

"Kai," she croaked, pulling herself to a sitting position against the bars with a gasp. "Kai, are you alright?"

Kai stirred, sitting up and touching his forehead. Blood dribbled down, the gash sure to scar. Cinder wondered what that would be like, a scar on his previously smooth, unblemished skin.

He moaned, but then opened his eyes, seeing her pleading eyes and tattered dress and the chains that glowed in whatever light reached them from the hallway.

"Cinder... Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me. I knew you shouldn't have come, I told you not to, but you did, and—" She cut off, gagging, pain arching through her body. She couldn't cry. _She couldn't cry._ But she _wanted_ to. Oh, if her cyborg eyes could shed tears...

"Cinder, I think I'm bleeding."

Cinder tried to still the pounding in her head, shutting her eyes and taking slow, shallow breaths until her head and ribs and entire body didn't ache so much.

"I know. But you'll be okay. _We'll_ be okay."

The orange light flashed. She didn't believe a word that came out of her mouth. But she said them anyway, in case they were true. She said them anyway, in case she could convince herself they were true.

Because she had to. She had to believe them. Or she was already dead.

Kai ripped off a portion of his suit jacket, holding it to his forehead, expensive fabric soaking up the red stain of his own blood. He winced, but besides the bleeding forehead, Cinder didn't see anything else too noticeable. He didn't move or breath in a way that suggested broken bones, though for all she knew he would be bruised all over by morning.

He finally looked up at her again, the hair that was impeccably swept away from his face only hours ago now hanging in his eyes. Pulling himself closer to her on his hands and knees, he sat against the same bars she did, arms almost touching her own.

Anywhere else, she'd be happy to be with him. Especially alone. But now, with metal separating them, with the threat of death looming on her bleak horizon, and the new information that crashed down on her when at her weakest, all she wanted was for him to be as far away as possible, safe, without her, without the burden she beared, and the fate they now shared.

Kai reached through the bars, three of his fingers squeezing through the gap. Cinder placed three of her own on top, and they sat their in silence, the small warmth shared helping for a second to fend off the voices in their heads, all the screaming and awful silences and the churning, the churning that would never stop.

"There's something I have to tell you." Cinder broke the silence, the snap reverberating from wall to wall.

"Mmhm."

"Levana told me something. Right before she put me in here. She—she told me that—"

Kai moved one of his fingers, a pitiful attempt to reassure her. She almost laughed at how ridiculous it was, three fingers on fingers, nothing more and nothing less than metal bars separating them by mere inches. But there was nothing funny about what she was to say, about what it meant to both of them and their lives.

"She told me that I'm princess Selene."

Kai's fingers twitched, but to his credit that was the only sign of emotion that he put out.

"Really? Are you sure she wasn't just... manipulating you? Weakening you to make you more vulnerable?"

"She wasn't lying." Cinder didn't tell him that the orange light didn't go off when Levana spoke. Then she'd have to explain she knew when people lied, and that would've been almost as awkward and scary as this conversation. Almost.

Cinder shivered.

"Well then... what does... What does this mean for us?"

"It means we'll never get out of here alive." Kai's fingers stiffened. "It means she'll never, _ever_ let me go. She'll execute me. And that's that. Maybe... maybe I deserve it."

"Cinder."

She shut her eyes and counted. Her head pounded again. She should be crying.

 _One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six._

"Cinder."

She opened them again, but the pain didn't go away. She wanted to scream, to hit her head against the bars, to tear at her skin and sob and cry and let herself fall apart, right then and there, but Kai was still there, and, somehow, a piece of her was still there too, clinging to the edge of her mind's void.

"Cinder, look at me."

She obeyed, trying to lose herself in brown eyes and soft lips. But she couldn't. Her mind was too blank, too full, too busy with the noise of open space.

"You don't deserve it. If I'm being honest with myself, no one deserves it. As it is, life goes on, and death goes on, but no one _deserves_ it." Kai's eyes welled up, and Cinder wondered what it was that troubled him most. His parent's death? The citizens he'd lost to the plague? Those to Lunar attacks? There was no other on Earth with as much a burden to carry as his.

Oh, how self centered Cinder was, to think of her own as the heaviest.

"People... people die. That's how it is. And some people's death bring good, and some deaths bring bad, and some remain neutral, but it has nothing to do with deserving it." A tear slipped down his cheek, and she knew anywhere else, in any other circumstance, he would not be crying. But he was alone with her, and it was dark, and he was spilling his innermost thoughts, ones he'd probably spent days and nights drowning in.

Just like her.

"Cinder."

"Selene," Cinder whispered, looking down at their fingers. "My real name is Selene, it seems."

"Cinder."

She wanted to fall into the darkness. It would be so easy. Just to let go. To let everything consume her until there was nothing left to consume.

"Cinder. Cinder, I... I love you."

Her eyes snapped up to his, wide and panicked. They held hands. They kissed. They dated. But never had he said something like that.

Kai chuckled, a low, painful chuckle.

"That got your attention." Cinder would've thought he'd been kidding, but the blush on his cheeks said otherwise. What part of her made her worth it? she thought. What part of her made her worth not falling away, worth existing? What did he even see in her?

Maybe the question was not as rhetorical as it seemed.

"You think we'll escape?" Cinder stared into Kai's eyes, a challenge.

"Yes. Yes, I think we will."

Cinder smiled. Her ribs still ached, but it seemed more dull now, now that she had something to smile about.

"Good. Because I think we will too."

And with that, she leaned forward, until their lips brushed in the three inches in between the bars, where they sat, where they wished, where they dreamed.

Where they escaped.


	3. Costume

Scarlet tugged at the bird mask covering her face, accidentally poking her hand on its beak.

"I can't believe we're doing this. _In costume._ "

Wolf shrugged, the fake fur draped around his shoulders making him look even more wolflike and less like the squirrel the costume was going for. It had been a long shot to begin with.

"The beak makes it hard to breath."

"And hard to recognise."

"True. I guess we don't have a choice." Her hand flew absentmindedly to her waist, where a smooth, thin gun rested against her hips. She couldn't wait to take the cursed mask off and get some action.

Wolf offered her his hand, the small ears poking up from the top of his head making her smile. Now _that_ wasn't very wolf-like.

"Ready?" he whispered.

"You kidding?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

* * *

Cinder woke up. At first she couldn't tell she was awake, for all light had now left, leaving only a pitch black behind. It was the cold that told her otherwise. She shivered, wishing they had at least been given a blanket.

"Kai," Cinder whispered. She didn't have a good reason to wake him up, but she didn't like the thought of sitting in this darkness alone. Selfishly, she was glad Kai was here; at least she could die knowing that wherever they were going, they would be going together.

He groaned, raising his head. "Mmhm?"

"I don't know."

He smiled. "You woke me up for no reason?"

"Um, no. No, I woke you up so that we could get planning done." The orange light blinked, but she knew it didn't always have to be a lie. They _did_ need to figure something out, because Levana would most likely execute them sooner than later.

His smile faded. "Right. You have any... ideas?"

Levana wanted her dead. _Badly._ There were royal guards everywhere, watching, keeping tabs on their prisoners. Probably had technology that not only far surpassed all of the nothing that they had, but perhaps even that at REV itself. One could never tell with Lunars.

But they had been trained their whole life for this; the first thing to do was to contact any potential allies. And there was nothing like a portscreen in your eye that allowed you to contact people faster, and more stealthily.

"One second." Cinder shut her eyes, though the darkness behind them wasn't much different. Starting a comm for Scarlet, she quickly thought out a message.

 _Kai and I have been caught. Currently in Levana's jail. Not sure where. Please send help._

She paused, then added, _Quickly,_ and sent it.

"What...?"

"I just sent a comm to Scarlet."

Kai tilted his head, confused, until his eyes brightened in understanding. "Right. I forgot about..."

Cinder nodded.

"Well, tell me if—"

A ping sounded in her head. She accepted the comm instantly, eyes closing. Text scrolled across her vision.

Two words.

 _We're coming._

* * *

Never in all her years had Scarlet been to such a party. After the ball only the night before, she thought that the citizens of Luna would have be out of sleep and money by now, but they seemed in good spirits, talking and gossiping and flirting as if everything were normal.

As if Cinder weren't in prison, as if she weren't about to die.

Some of the costumes made her sick. The one that bothered her most was a man wearing animals skins, mud crudely rubbed on his face. A sign around his neck read "Prince Kai." The people around him talked and laughed, as if the shaming of the crowned prince of a place not even their own was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

It was wrong. All of it. This place. These costumes. These people.

Scarlet's stomach twisted. Why had Cinder been sent here in the first place? She hated it. Hated it so much that when Wolf asked if she wanted to get a drink all she could do was clench her fists harder and nod, trying not to give away her internal struggle.

Luckily, as hard as the mask made it to breath and see much to either side, it also made her unrecognizable, and she could make whatever expression she wished without anyone noticing. It also meant that when Wolf came back with two glasses of wine, all she could do was point to her face in the obvious, _I'm wearing a mask, idiot, how did you think I'm supposed to drink anything?_

He simply nodded and downed both glasses in seconds. If she didn't know him any better, she would've warned him not to to get drunk on the mission. But she did know better. And Wolf didn't get drunk.

 _Except on me._ Scarlet smiled, trying not to laugh to herself. It was good no one could read her thoughts.

Then she felt Wolf's shadow, and his breath by her ear.

"Let's get some fresh air." Code for: Let's get the hell out of here and go bust some criminals.

Finally. Some action.

Wolf took her hand, smiling at her in longing. At least, that's what it seemed like to everyone else. To her it only spoke of escape, to the real start of their mission.

They walked out of the room, straight past the balcony and down the hallway to their left, slipping into a poorly lit stairwell. She wanted to pull the mask from her head, but as it was, it was also the only thing hiding her startling red hair. She'd have to wait.

Plus, the black fabric of her raven costume melted perfectly into the twisting darkness of the stairs, as if she weren't even there.

Perfect.

She had a cyborg and a prince to save, after all.

* * *

Iko went for the clothing. When she heard Scarlet and Wolf were going to the Lunar's costume party (for no given reason), she knew she must come along. But when she asked to attend, they said it was "much too dangerous for an android. You know how they feel about them."

So she got her own costume, own disguise. She'd owned the dress for months, since she spied it in a small boutique with similarly strange fashions. Earthy colors and ruffles and a corset (a lucky fit, considering her metal was not flexible to any shaping from clothing) gave off a dark, daring look.

Iko looked stunning, and she knew it.

Tapping her heeled boots on the floor, she smiled at the mirror. Oh, she was gorgeous. Just wait until Cinder heard about this.

* * *

It didn't take long for the clicking of heels to bother Scarlet. She knew there were other people in the palace, and most definitely a lot of people in heels, but it seemed too close. She didn't know _exactly_ where they were (this was a rushed operation, after all), but she was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to be there. And other people weren't either. At least not other party goers.

It grew louder. Scarlet stopped, tapping Wolf on the shoulder and putting a finger to her lips when he looked back at her. He'd probably heard it before she had, but hadn't mentioned anything.

Her heart beat quickened. What if this was the queen? What if she knew about their mission, if someone betrayed them, told her about their plans...?

Then someone burst into her line of sight, straight above her, only ten or so feet away.

She noticed first that the person wasn't breathing, and did not look tired or sweaty at all for someone who ran down the stairs in heeled boots. The next thing she noticed was the blue, braided hair pulled to the top of their head, and the shiny grin that greeted her.

 _What the spades was Iko doing down here?_

"Where are you—" Iko started, but Scarlet cut her off with a look. "Oh. You're on a mission, aren't you? And I just—oh no. Did I just blow your cover?" Even at a whisper, Iko's voice carried more than Scarlet would've preferred.

"No yet," Scarlet said, glaring pointedly. "But you will if you don't stop talking. And keep walking in those heels. And continue following us. _What_ are you doing here?"

"I just... I just wanted to go to the party."

Scarlet felt a twinge of pity. Iko spent most of her life in a small, metal frame, dreaming of being human, of fitting in. Now was her only real chance to walk around in public, showing off the body she'd spent so long looking for.

Any other party. Any other party but this one.

"I'm sorry, Iko. Really. But... this isn't the right time. I don't think we can let you go back up there, since they might see you coming from this hallway, and, well, stealth isn't exactly your strong suit." Iko didn't object. "So I guess just take off your heels, carry them—so anyone who passes by doesn't find any clues—and follow us. But be quiet. And if we run into anyone, hide."

Iko nodded, slipping her shoes off. As long as she didn't have to leave such fine boots behind, she was okay. She would have preferred a night at the party, and she certainly didn't like where this was going, but if this was how the night was going to go, this was how she was going to act.

Wolf nodded, a smile his only greeting, before facing forwards again and continuing down the stairs.

* * *

Cinder sent another comm, not too long after the first, but either Scarlet hadn't heard the ping or she was no longer in a position to check her port screen. It wasn't logical to wish for a reply back, not when they were on a mission, but she felt lonely again, knowing that her friends were out there, and yet not close enough to see her.

Not close enough to rescue her.

Kai had his eyes closed, and while she doubted he was sleeping—they had to stay awake, in case Scarlet and their team burst in at any second—she didn't feel the need to disturb him.

Then Kai's stomach grumbled, and it reminded her just how hungry she really was. She hadn't eaten anything since before the ball, and the clock in the corner of her eyes informed her they'd been been down here almost a day. No one brought food the entire time.

She wondered if the Lunar queen simply planned on starving them to death.

But the hunger pains were the least of her troubles, after her bruised ribs and possibly chipped tooth and the gash on Kai's forehead, which had luckily stopped bleeding. Not after the knowledge that she was princess Selene, that a throne waited for her somewhere, if she even escaped, and it would taunt her until she claimed it.

Oh, what a mess this world was in. What a mess she was in.

Then the sirens went off, and she promptly forgot all about princesses and hunger pains and bruises.

Scarlet and Wolf were in. And it seemed like they were about to get into trouble.

* * *

It was only now that Scarlet pulled out her gun. Before, the sound of a gunfire would have completely messed up any stealth they'd been trying to maintain, but now that the alarm had gone off, there wasn't much to lose.

Holding the gun in her hand was a relief, especially since, while Wolf specialized in hand to hand combat, Scarlet's marksmanship was not only impressive, but downright legendary. At least, that's what she told herself.

She thought of her grandmother when she shot. She didn't aim to kill—the leg or arm would disable most soldiers just as well as a shot to the heart, if not because of the pain—but it didn't hinder her firing. In less than a minute, she and Wolf cleared ten royal guards and were on their way again, fighting to keep their breathing even. Iko popped back up from behind the boxes she hid behind during the fighting, and along they went, sprinting. They were outrunning time now; the more seconds passed, the more Lunars there would be to fight. And while she felt confidence in her gun, she didn't feel the need to test it against anything more than eleven guards at a time. Heck, even more than five, at such close range. It was a good thing Wolf was there. Only together were they strong enough.

Scarlet knew they were close now. Empty cells passed her this way and that—at least, she assumed they were empty. She didn't bother to check. She assumed Cinder would be near the end, and that if they did pass by hopefully one of them would alert Scarlet to their presence.

She turned around the next bend, and stopped. Finally, the end. Three cells. One empty. Two not.

And there, right before her, the queen herself, smiling as she held a gun up and pointed it straight at Scarlet's forehead.


	4. Mythology

"What have we here? A... crow?" Levana laughed, pushing a curled red lock away from her face with her free hand. "How fitting for—"

She didn't get to finish her sentence, for at that moment a long, brown object went sailing past Scarlet's head, knocking the gun clear out of Levana's hand and whacking her face on its path to the floor, where it made a soft thump.

Before Scarlet even fully registered what had happened, her gun was up as well, pointing directly at the queen's heart. She fired, but Levana hit the ground, one hand on her nose, another scrabbling for the gun. Scarlet re-aimed and fired another shot, but Levana rolled over, gun finally in hand. Luckily for Scarlet, though, Levana was a queen, and Scarlet was a spy. With one more shot, she hit the barrel of Levana's gun, making her drop it, and then sent the next bullet straight into Levana's calf.

Levana cried out, blood already seeping into the gossamer pink fabric of her costume. She curled into herself, hugging her leg, tears already making their way onto the floor. _How very unqueenly,_ Scarlet thought, aiming her gun at Levana's head.

Levana did nothing to deserve to live. She'd killed countless of Kai's citizens, jailed Cinder and Kai, and tried to kill Scarlet herself. If anyone deserved death, it was her.

But then Levana's face flickered and changed, and Scarlet was so horrified her gun's aim fell to the ground and every thought of killing her stopped.

The person in front of her, the scared mess that was crying and hugging her leg and bleeding—she wasn't a queen. She was a monster.

Scarlet leaned over, her stomach heaving. If she had anything in her stomach, she would've thrown up. As it was, only bile rose to her throat.

It wasn't, per say, that Levana's scars were so ghastly. They were ugly, and sharp, and cruel, but they weren't fresh—grown over as if they'd been there for decades. What had been so startling was the contrast with how Levana normally looked, with flawless skin and complexion, and features nothing like the shapeless lump that Scarlet saw now.

"Scarlet!" Wolf ran up to her, putting an arm around her shoulder. "Scarlet, are you okay?"

"I—I'm fine." She wiped her mouth, though there was no need, since nothing had actually reached her lips. "I swear, I'm okay."

He looked down at the floor, where Levana lay sobbing. His face contorted.

"May I...?"

Scarlet shook her head. Now that she thought about it, Levana's death wasn't their decision to make, after all. Maybe it was Kai's decision, but it wasn't hers.

Wolf then averted his eyes from Levana's form, instead taking a set of keys from one of the fallen guards and unlocking Cinder and Kai's cells. When the doors opened, Kai and Cinder both made to stand up and leave, but only Kai made it to the door. Cinder fell back to the ground, catching her fall meekly with her cyborg hand.

Kai, startled, looked back at her, fear on his face.

"Cinder! Cinder, are you alright?"

"It's just my ribs." She gasped, holding them tighter. "I'm okay. I'm... fine."

Wolf walked in and scooped her up, and she cried out in pain, but it couldn't be helped. She had to escape _somehow_.

And they had to go now. Scarlet knew this. The longer they waited, the sooner the guards would come to get them, and judging by the gash on Kai's forehead, Cinder's state, and Iko's inexperience, now was not the time to get caught in a situation they had to fight their way out of.

But part of her didn't want to leave yet, not with Levana alive, not without checking in with Kai and Cinder and figuring out what had happened in the first place.

"Wolf," Scarlet heard Cinder say. "Wolf, there's something you all need to know. Something... important."

"We have to go now, Cinder," Wolf said gently. "Or else we'll get caught before we get out of the palace."

"I know, but this is important. You have to realize what's happening, because... because things are even worse than you think."

"Worse than Levana guarding your own jail cell?" Scarlet laughed, but there was little genuine about it. They had to get out. "I don't think—Wait, why was she...?"

"I'm princess Selene." Cinder winced more, gingerly positioning herself in Wolf's arms, clearly still in pain.

Scarlet's mind reeled. "Wait, so—"

"No time for questions," Kai cut in. "She just needed to tell you because it means it will be even harder to escape."

"Wait, but... She tried to kill you a birth. But you escaped. And... that means that out of any of us here, you are the only one who can decide Levana's fate." Scarlet nodded at Cinder. "She's here, wounded. We could kill her, quick and easy and painless. It's all up to you."

Levana hadn't moved from her position. She must not have been accustomed to pain, or maybe she was too accustomed. Either way, it seemed like it would be a while before she'd be up again.

Cinder seemed to ponder it, or perhaps it was the pain scrunching her face up.

"No one deserves to die," she whispered. "No one. Not even her."

"Are you sure? Because—"

"No one." Cinder closed her eyes.

Just then a shot rang out, and a blinding pain spread through Scarlet's left arm, blood splattering. Before she could think, she turned on her heel and shot a bullet straight ahead.

It went clean through Levana's skull.

Before she could see anything else, sense anything else, Scarlet crumpled, dropping her gun. She lightly touched her upper arm, tears already springing to her eyes.

"She shot me," Scarlet croaked. "That filth just shot me."

Wolf moved to lean down towards her, even with Cinder still in his arms, but then froze, fear stopping his face.

Scarlet couldn't remember the last time he'd looked _afraid._ Then, through the tears, through the pain, she looked up as well.

Guards. Maybe thirty of them, all in royal uniform. Blocking the hallway. One stood in front, gun trained on them.

"Drop your weapons and kneel," he commanded. The five of them knelt, Scarlet practically falling to the ground. She shut her eyes harder, trying not to scream out.

Opening her eyes again, she saw all thirty of the guards take their guns from their holster and point them towards them.

But the scariest thing wasn't their numbers, or their guns.

All of them only had one eye, right in the center of their foreheads.

 _Cyclops._

Cinder clung to Wolf's shirt, eyes open despite the fact that every inch of her—especially her ribs—screamed in pain. Drinking in the scene before her, the guns and the uniforms and the single eyes, was too much to shut out, too much to ignore.

And she was princess Selene. Wasn't she supposed to swoop in and save them all? Wasn't she supposed to be a hero? But all she felt right then was pain and weakness. She couldn't even stand. She was a nobody then, a weak, dying nobody.

How would they get out of _this_ one?

"Who are you?" the forward guard commanded. He was clearly their leader.

Before anyone else could answer, Cinder said what first came to her head.

"Nobody."

"Nobody, eh?" He smiled, the corners of his eye crinkling. "Lie to me again and you and your friends are dead."

Cinder took more shallow breaths, trying to bite back her pain. Oh, what she would do to be out of this place, what she would do to be anywhere but here.

Then a tingling started at the base of her spine and grew, washing over her entire body. She finally closed her eyes, a warmth spreading with it, touching from her fingertips to her toes. The pain didn't go away, but it seemed secondary in comparison to this wonderful feeling, wherever it came from.

Then Wolf dropped her, and she rolled to the floor, crying out where she hit the floor.

Why weren't they dead already? Why hadn't they been shot?

She looked around her. Everyone was staring at her. But why?

Glancing at her outstretched hand, she did a double take. Where was her cyborg arm? Why was there smooth skin instead, healthy and shiny and... wait.

 _Lunar._

How had this escaped her notice? If she knew she was princess Selene, how did she not put two and two together...

The pain faded into the background. She felt powerful now. She rose, one foot and then the other, arms fisted at her side. Wolf was behind her still, in shock. Everyone was in shock. Everyone but her.

"Put down your weapons," Cinder commanded, feeling the cyclop's energy, bending her own around it until... all their guns fell to the ground.

"Turn around." Their backs turned.

"Cover your ears with your hands. Do not speak of this. Run as far away as you can." They crashed into each other in their effort to get out, to get away. A smile itched at Cinder's lips, but then her exhaustion and pain caught up. She collapsed, a vignette framing her vision until everything looked like a dream.

Seconds later everything turned to black.


	5. Beach

Cinder watched them from the window, head perched in her right hand. It was Iko's idea, to play beach volleyball, despite none of them knowing the rules. Cinder didn't know them herself, but she doubted that Thorne catching the ball, running to the other side, and touching it to the ground was legal.

Signing, she closed her eyes, the hundreds of comms, news articles, and stats scrawling across her vision, just as she'd left them. After Levana's announced death, there was chaos. The poor were currently barely affected, since they knew little about their ruler, but the royalty had been cold to Cinder, ever since she took the crown. It was only time before one of them tried to get her assassinated, or something ridiculous like that.

She wondered if this was what Kai felt like. She had newfound respect for him, now that she'd been in power for only a month and felt more stress than the rest of her years combined.

Dropping her head to the table, she gave off a loud harrumph. What she would give to be outside with the rest of them, running around like idiots and not caring in the least.

"I take it you're feeling rather done with being queen, huh?" She felt a pat on her back, and she lifted her head, squinting up at Kai.

"If you can believe it, I was "rather done" with being queen as soon as I became one."

"Me too. Well, not queen: emperor. But it gets better. I swear."

"I hope so. Otherwise I might take a gun to my head."

The sentence hung in the air, meant as a joke, but it had lost any humor years ago, once it became viable option.

"You should come join us. Well, _them_. I took a break to check in on you. I know... I know exactly what it's like."

Cinder spotted sand on his grey sweatpants, and some fell to the ground when he moved to scratch behind his ear. She _wanted_ to join them. That wasn't the question. But with Luna in such a mess, she couldn't very well be so selfish as to put herself before an entire nation.

"You know how busy I am. I can't say that I don't _want_ to join you, but I _can't._ "

Kai tilted his head. "You'll make better decisions if you're relaxed. The more stressed you are, the less quality thinking will be done. Well, I don't actually have any quotable evidence, but feel free to check me."

"I believe you. But..." Cinder sighed, raising a hand to her forehead. "It's just..."

"You feel responsible for everything that has gone wrong. You blame yourself for it. You think it is your fault, because now you're in power and everything's going wrong. And because of that, you think it's your job to fix it, and only yours, and there is nothing, _nothing_ you deserve until you've found a solution. I know. I understand." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes.

"The first thing you have to understand is that it's not your fault. The transition from one power to another is never smooth, and after the long, tyrannic rule of Levana, it's bound to be bumpier than most. There will be days when you don't think you can continue, can not bear the thought of making choices for an entire people, for being almost wholly responsible for the wellbeing and prosperity of a nation.

"You have to learn to let that go. You will make bad decisions. You will make good decisions. People die; that is a fact. There will be the poor, and the wealthy, and no matter how hard you try, the equality you seek may be hard pressed to show up. I'm not telling you not to care, because caring is very important, but I'm telling you to stop thinking of everything as good or bad. As long as you follow what you think is best for your country—well, you _can_ go wrong, looking at Levana, but that's what advisors are for." He paused, smiling at her. "I mean, how much damage can one person do?"

Cinder laughed, shakily, hands going to tug up her nonexistent gloves.

"Fine, I'll play volleyball with you guys. But under one condition."

"Which is?"

" _I_ get to set the rules."

Cinder didn't mind being wet. Her cyborg parts were waterproof, after all, and she never said no to a warm (or piping hot) shower. But sea water was different, smelly and sticky and salty, and most definitely uncomfortable when sitting on plush couches, soaking to the bone in it.

She couldn't quite remember who started it: maybe it was when Wolf accidentally splashed Scarlet on their race to the water, when the ball caught a gust of wind and flew dangerously off course; or maybe it was when Cress kicked wet sand on Thorne's ankles during a particularly slippery dive; or maybe it was when Iko...

Either way, their "friendly" volleyball match turned into a full fledged water battle, and after all the splashing, yelling, and playful pushing into the waves, all nine of them were cold, had sore throats, and were some awkward mix between tired and very much awake.

All except for Iko, of course, who was also wet, but as bright and beautiful as ever.

"So then Scarlet ran around the corner, because she hadn't seen Levana, and Levana pointed her gun at her. Logically, I did the first thing I thought of: I threw my boot at her."

The group laughed, and Cinder smiled to herself. Though they had all heard the stories countless times from various sources—and five of them had lived it themselves—it never got old. Not when Iko told it.

"And then I said—this is what I said—I said, 'Shame, I thought those boots would go well with your face.'"

Cinder laughed, despite not remembering Iko saying any such thing. But it was a story now, and stories were meant to be altered. No story was interesting on its own, after all. Not even her own.

"I don't think _anything_ goes well with her face, though," Iko added, while everyone was still laughing. "Though if I had the chance to, I'd get another boot in."

It was a wonder how fast Levana became a joke, nothing but a crazy Lunar with power too deeply engraved in her mind, now that she was dead. But Cinder couldn't shake the image of Levana's blood across the stones, and she noticed that Scarlet wasn't laughing, instead staring out the window ahead, as if trying to lose herself in the bright sky outside.

The truth was that no matter how much they joked or laughed about Levana, there was nothing funny about what she had done to the world, what she had done to _them._ She was not the only person behind the plague, or the genetically engineered soldiers, or the shell stealing, but she was the instigator, and it was because of her that Wolf became a monster in his own eyes, that Scarlet's grandmother was taken from her and killed, that Cinder lost eight years of her life to an operation, that Kai's parents died, that poor, innocent Peony had died.

Cinder flashed back to that moment, when Peony, Iko, and she were sifting through trash for a magbelt. Before Peony showed symptoms. After meeting Kai. Before being taken into the lab. After getting her new foot. Before she knew she was Lunar.

Before she knew she was Selene.

She remembered the first time she visited the quarantines, the stench and hopelessness, the desperation in the people hunched over their port screens, the way Peony's hands shook, how weak she looked, even with the blanket Cinder brought her.

Levana had done that. Levana let the plague loose, just to take the Earth for her own.

Peony had _died,_ a young girl with big dreams, one who had never asked for anything but to be taken to a ball by a handsome young prince, dazzling in her own ball gown.

A dreamer. Peony was a dreamer. And Levana stole her dreams, stole the dreams of anyone who crossed in her path, of even those who didn't.

Scarlet was right in shooting her. That she was sure of. It was defense, and after all that happened, it was merciful, if anything.

But there was another moment, another slice that jumped out at her whenever she closed her eyes too long, whenever she tried to sleep.

Levana's face, without glamor. The scars. _The scars._

There was a story behind them, Cinder was sure. But she didn't know what they were from, and what they did to shape Levana's choices.

But whatever they were from, whatever they were for, Levana had no excuse for her actions. Because Cinder lost 36.28% of her body in a fire, a fire Levana started herself. Because Cinder didn't end up killing anyone, because she found out right from wrong for herself, because she was wounded, but she didn't take it as a right to rule the world, she took it as a right to fix the world.

And fix the world she did.

Kai leaned into her side, sliding an arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, are you okay?" he whispered, quiet enough that no one else could hear. "You look a little pale."

Cinder shook her head. "Yeah, I'm fine."

He looked puzzled, but didn't ask any questions, instead snuggling closer. Cinder burrowed herself in his warmth, watching the conversations play out before her: Thorne having a friendly argument with Wolf, while absentmindedly squeezing Cress' hand; Iko continuing to give an in-depth explanation of what happened; Winter speaking to Jacin animately, him smiling back at her, brushing hair away from her face in a way that made Cinder wonder if he even knew he was doing it.

And her. Sitting with Kai. Peaceful. For the first time in months—the first time ever.

"You know," Cinder mumbled, "being queen might not be so bad, as long as you continue making so many visits to Artemisia."

He kissed the top of her head, smiling.

"Don't worry; there's nothing that could keep me from you. If anyone stood in our way, I'm sure you'd just hit them over the head with a wrench, and problem solved."

Cinder laughed into Kai's sweater, his only dry article of clothing after she'd dunked him in one of the taller waves.

"Oh, I wasn't worried," she said, pulling Kai's arms around her in an embrace. "Not anymore."

"Good."

"Who wants to get some cake!" Thorne jumped up from his seat, Cress flying up after him. "Last one to the kitchen is a rotten Lunar! No offense to present company, of course." He winked, and like that, dashed out of the room, Iko fresh on his tail. Then Winter got up, and Jacin, and after an exchanging of expressions, Scarlet and Wolf raced each other out the door.

Cinder and Kai were left alone in the room, the sudden silence washing over them.

"You think we should...?" Kai asked, nodding towards the door.

Cinder smiled, already moving to get up from his lap. "Why not." She took a few steps away, and then burst into a sprint.

"Race you!" she yelled, already smashing through the door and down the hallway.

"No fair!" Kai called after her. "You got a head start!"

But she couldn't hear him. She was too far down the hallway, already turning around one of the corridors that lead to the royal kitchen.

Shaking his head, he stood up from the couch, smiling.

Things were as they normally were, with Cinder always one step ahead.

And he wouldn't change it for the world.


End file.
